#hickoryrambles

[official-hawknose]

I think I'll forever be bitter that the Erins almost entirely removed all concepts of unique aspects of clan life to make almost every clan a Thunderclan version but wearing a different hat

Like, I'm pretty certain it's mentioned in the first arc that Shadowclan lurks in the shadows and isn't seen much during the day, I KNOW theres mention of Shadowclan cats wearing the shade like a second pelt. I'm also like. 90% sure it's fully canon that Shadowclan were night hunters, and the tail motions leaders use to communicate before entering to attend a gathering WAS developed by Shadowclan for night hunting tactics. That and I wish the fact that they lived on a marsh was used more. I want Shadowclan cats to have remnants of webbing between their toes, for their paws to be broad so they don't sink as much, and their legs shorter, but stocky. Their faces big and round and their ears small and wide set, their eyes wide and almost always dilated because they hunt at night. They look scary to other clans, and turn into spooky stories that Thunderclan and Windclan apprentices whisper about at night, and sometimes if they're unlucky and sneak out in the night, they catch a glimpse of big eyes shining in the darkness at them.

On one hand it could be said that when Tigerstar took over, he imposed Thunderclan sleep habits upon Shadowclan cats, being a Thunderclan born cat and all. He would've likely forced Shadowclan to work during the day and reform their sleep schedules around HIS desires, erasing that part of their clan life and identity, and to some extent perhaps even their culture as a whole.

Windclan, of course, lost the two unique roles they had in clan of moor runners and tunnelers, and while it's for good reason of the tunnels collapsing too often and killing/injuring cats, I wish they'd stayed. Or that Tallstar had reimposed them, with no stigma or habit for bloodlines to ONLY be a tunneler or moor runner, so no cat would be pulled in two directions, or be expected to do one thing and one thing alone.

Skyclan is.. Yknow. Skyclan. I wish they kept daylight warriors as a role, I wish they'd used more TREE hunting than anything else. I think it'd be interesting if Skyclan primarily hunted birds and squirrels in trees, that their territories have always been those thick forests where the branches twine together and there's no crown shyness to be seen, where touching the ground is almost unheard of except to get water, herbs or to go to the bathroom. I think it'd be interesting to have cats come to Skyclan, and have to scale a tree just to see a skyclan cat.

Riverclan seems to have suffered the least from the Thunderclan But With A New Hat and I think it's because Riverclan is harder to impose Thunderclan stuff onto. They hunt fish, they swim, they're constantly described as big, long furred, or beautiful, their territory has the second least amount of trees now that Shadowclan is primarily in pines over marsh.

[official-hawknose]

I’ve been doing Firestar’s family tree &...... boy.

It’s going better than I thought & i’m enjoying it a lot tbh. Thus far I haven’t finished Jake, Nutmeg and Quince and such, I was working in order of who I wanted to go for first

I’m going to add in Sandstorm’s parents and I’ll go with Redtail and Brindleface for it tbh. mostly bc i wanna draw Brindleface :)

The lines up from Crowfeather, Larksong and Bramblestar are all up to whoever their parents are, tho I haven’t decided to do them juuust yet.

[official-hawknose]

i think my Personal favorite thing in making fanclans (or stuff vaguely warriors related like birth of an echo) is that I can do like. anything i really want to?

in birth of an echo, two apprentices(Mushroom and Cobweb) are together. both nonbinary, Mushroom is masc leaning and uses it/they and Cobweb is fem leaning and uses he/they, he/him primarily.

Neither of them would inherently get in trouble for dating, neither of them want nor can have kits, Cobweb is content to be a warrior someday, Mushroom is an herbalist apprentice. cobweb’s outlook on it is ‘its not a big deal if we’re gay’ and Mushrooms in a nice closet paradox, it’s scared that if their relationship is more public, it might be forced to step down and become a warrior.

Cobweb is certain it won’t happen because Bug Pollen is Mushroom’s older brother and wouldn’t do that to it.

they eventually do make their relationship more public, and the entire apprentice group theyre from (Larch, Muddy, and Sweet) are very unsurprised because after the fifteenth time that they woke up to Mushroom, who’s supposed to sleep in the herbalist den with Fidgetspeckles, in Cobweb’s nest, it was kiiinda obvious.

Sweet thought it was adorable, and adored every second of it, same with Muddy. Both mollies just outright loved how Mushroom and Cobweb tried and failed to be all secretive from their age mates.

[official-hawknose]

anyways this is Literally All i have to offer rn & its an oc lmao

This is Marigold, from my own cat groups. They’re nonbinary, and also possessed by their dead siblings :)

the Actual story to it ties into the Lore of the world aka: cats that die get to choose to either wander until their soul is eaten, be reborn, or chance being accepted to the afterlife. On average, kits are given the choice, but usually are implored to go to the afterlife, or be reborn.

Marigold’s siblings, from an older litter, Rye and Lynx, died of starvation during a massive prey shortage. They wanted to be reborn, even knowing it wouldn’t put them back with their fathers(or even in the same Court), Shimmerface and Tinycinders.

Normally kits aren’t reborn and choose to pass on.

This instance backfired majorly when, with no suitable vessel for either of them being born, the Guide took its eyes off them for TWO SECONDS, not realizing that two young, very eager to be alive again kits would run off without being overseen. It ended them back in Dawn Court territory, where Shimmerface had his new litter. One kit was born healthy and wailing, passed on to Tinycinders to be groomed. The other was born silent, Shimmerface’s brother trying his best to get the kit to wake up.

In the end, Rye and Lynx didn’t want to be separated and chose to just go together, causing the kit to finally wake up and start crying.

In the Lore, rebirths only happen when a kit is born with a partial or no soul in the body - effectively stillborn. Marigold only had a partial soul, but because neither Rye nor Lynx wanted to leave the other alone as a ghost and forget about eachother, neither got full control of the body. The two extra souls bolstered Marigold’s in the end, propping their soul up to actually function semi-properly. They’re now just plagued with two kits that INSIST theyre still big siblings, even as Marigold enters adulthood.

Neither kit talks about how they died, but Shimmerface often talks about his former litter, once Poplar and Marigold were older, about how Rye and Lynx were, who they were. Marigold always had to keep quiet, considering they HAD Rye and Lynx with them at all times.

Shimmerface is trans for reference, he and Tinycinders are husbands, Shimmerface is the deputy of Dawn Court. His brother Meadowshine is the herbalist of the court, and while Shimmerface was in the nursery and unable to attend to his duties outside of his nest, Softeye, his close friend, took up his duties.

Rye and Lynx were born just before a major prey shortage began, and despite Shimmerface’s best attempts, his milk was already lacking by the time starvation set in for most of the camp. Tinycinders spared what prey he could to feed his family, but in the end both kits died shortly after one another, and Shimmerface returned to his duties in silence. He and Tinycinders took a long break from any relationship afterwards, but as prey ran well again and time ran its course healing them, they mended their relationship and after a solid few years, had a second litter, consisting of Poplar, a molly, and Marigold. Shimmerface is Very Much almost an overbearing father, nervous about their survival, even though the circumstances were worlds better for this litter.

Marigold never talked about Rye and Lynx being Part of them now, opting to keep silent about the whole deal to spare Shimmerface the grief of reopening those wounds, but sometimes Shimmerface looks at them and swears he sees Lynx or Rye out of the corner of his eye, and Marigold was always such an imaginative kit, talking to made-up friends all the time.

Marigold was also born with a cleft palate, and while i Know most cats with a cleft palate don’t survive without human intervention, its my fantasy cats and i call the shots here ok.

also also in This Stuff, kits and apprentices don’t have suffixes. Only after reaching adulthood and finishing their apprenticeship, do they receive their suffix. I havent chosen any suffix for Marigold or Poplar since currently, they aren’t old enough yet and also:  i have 0 forethought.

[official-hawknose]

i kinda wanna write a mini fic of the fire scene but if no one was stupid as rocks

Who hears their mom announce a major, groundbreaking, life changing secret in a life or death situation and go “yeah, thats the truth!” and then hates her for like. 4 months

at the very least i could see lionblaze believing it, maybe even jayfeather to some extent? but HOLLYLEAF?? no way

[official-hawknose]

Anyways bc I havent talked about it much lately in my scourge lives rewrite(still need a goddamn name for that..), here’s some stuff

Scourge and Cinderpelt both similarly ache during cold nights, leafbare and really in general when the weather gets colder. Rain makes Cinderpelt’s joints ache, and Scourge’s paws as well.

Scourge’s voice is still higher pitched & similar to the description in canon, but he speaks much quieter on average. He rarely raises his voice, and now it hurts to try.

Snowkit is afraid of open spaces, they stick to the edges of camp and thus far, other cats bring them their meals. Firestar plans on moving the freshkill pile to make it more comfortable for them, though. They can only handle open spaces when another cat is with them, which is good because Ashpaw, Fernpaw and Bramblepaw rarely leave their side, unless the trio have to go training. Similarly, the trio of apprentices come back and show Snowkit what all theyve learned. Snowkit isn’t officially an apprentice, not yet. But they’ll be apprenticed to Brackenfur when the time comes. Firestar intends to wait until they’re more comfortable, and the clan is able to efficiently communicate with them.

Snowkit also has severe scars along their back and sides from the hawk, their fur is too short to cover them. Speckletail often spends time staring at the scars, knowing full well a cat their age shouldn’t have them. Speckletail retired shortly after Snowkit was taken, and before they were returned.

Snowkit’s still deaf, they have no hearing at all. When they’re apprenticed, they’ll likely stay apprenticed for a while longer while Brackenfur adapts the usual methods and moves he was taught, so it’s easier for Snowkit to do.

When Cinderpelt was first injured, Fireheart left to Windclan to ask Deadfoot for advice on what to do. Deadfoot, being deputy, couldnt leave his clan to help Cinderpelt. But he still offered his advice, despite his paw being different than her injury. Cinderpelt trained for a while once fully healed, trying to be a warrior. She decided after a while she liked Yellowfang too much(”No kit in their right mind would want to work with a grumpy cat like you!”). She returned to train with Yellowfang, gaining her name a bit later than most other med cats would.

[official-hawknose]

Orchardclan’s main heads!

Pikestar is the leader of Orchardclan - hard-headed and intense, she’s usually the main aggregator at gatherings. She’s pretty loud and out there, and has her fair share of scars from scuffles during her warrior days. Fernpatch is her deputy(and one of the two -patch deputies lol) He’s much more level-headed than she is, and more often than not, is the only one between her and a potential war, really. He’s pretty laid back, but is fiercely loyal to his clanmates, and leader, and won’t hesitate to use his claws if someone insinuates she’s a poor leader. Orchardclan hasn’t been stronger than her leadership, in his opinion.

And Duskflower! The herbalist of the clan, she’s one of the taller cats in Orchardclan and... Often times scares her clanmates. She has a bad habit of lurking in the shadows and scaring them when she moves. She’s quiet, if only because she spends much of her days restocking her supplies, Fernpatch is a close friend to her though! It's tradition in all clans for herbalists to be close with their leaders and deputies, in a close bond of three friends(a few stories say more, but no one can agree whether it's ethical to force three cats to be in a relationship. Most cats say it’s not ethical.) to ensure that the clans are portrayed by a united front! As a result, the herbalists aren’t separate from their leaders and deputies during gatherings. While deputies must stay at the base of the stump, herbalists stay on the ground near them, most herbalists only stay when the clans are called for the reporting, and wander off during the actual speaking.

There are some older elders that get affronted when the clan heads aren’t mates, and their kits and grandkits tend to try to talk to them about it and insist that its REALLY not ethical.

Gatherings function differently, too. The leaders, deputies and herbalists all sit in different positions along the tree stump, with leaders traditionally being on top, where it was felled, deputies taking the assigned root gnarls below them, and herbalists on the ground in front of the tree. The gathering is in three sections - the initial meeting, when the clans first enter the gathering place and mingle until the final clan joins. After that, the heads of the clans go to their assigned spots, and the second portion begins, the reporting portion. This time is for full attention for warriors, older apprentices and any elders that attend, and is where the leaders will announce births, deaths, new apprentices, warriors, deputies, and assignment changes within their clans, as well as news of hunting, and predators sighted or scented. The final half is generally the longest portion of the gathering and when all the clans mingle, friends share personal news, apprentices meet others from different clans, and most of it is shared while grooming.

While the clans aren’t buddy-buddy, the modern clans try and avoid conflict reasonably. After Froststar and Swallowstar died, the gatherings were held in stoic silence, and it wasn’t until Rainstar passed away, that Pikestar got fed up and demanded things go back to normal. For moons after Froststar and Swallowstar died, the clans were walking on eggshells around one another - particularly Thicketclan and Creviceclan. Even now, its very rare to see any Thicketclan cat with a Creviceclan cat.

[official-hawknose]

i got Slammed w/ an Idea for stuff oc-wise so Here bc i havent. actually spent time drawing canon cats and instead mainly designed 5 ocs

Flintpaw (left) and Dodgepaw (right). they’re sisters in two different clans and just. Dont realize it bc they dont look similar at All.

I initially was going to go with canon clan names for it all but ended up feeling more comfortable using oc clans instead

Flintpaw belongs to Orchardclan, which resides in the most forested area of the territories. Most cats tend to be smaller and more athletic there, as hunting and navigating the underbrush and old growth roots is tedious and hard on them. Their fur is thicker to protect their skin from scraping along roots and bushes they have to navigate under, and through.

Orchardclan’s camp is settled around the roots of an old, old growth tree with thick roots that most of the dens are settled under using ferns to cover what isnt shielded by the roots. 

Dodgepaw belongs to Bayouclan, which shares a border with Orchardclan. They tend to be comprised of taller cats with longer legs. They dont hunt on the strip of territory that borders Orchardclan, because its still that thick forest. Most of their hunting is fish, frogs and aquatic or semiaquatic animals, water fowl and other creatures that live on the water or near it. Most of the territory is marsh, or water, and the majority of it is sparsely covered in trees.

 Bayouclan’s camp is on one of the few dry patches of land, though its prone to flooding. They function similarly to Riverclan in that most of their dens and nests float on water, though the herbalist den is technically out of camp, high in a tree that’s sturdy and on dry land, though it’s location moved a few times, they keep their herbs in the tree along the limbs and in knots, and below at the base is where the sick cats will rest in a den.

Flintpaw is a warrior apprentice, Dodgepaw is a med cat apprentice(renamed Herbalist/herbalist apprentice).